Sex offender found hiding in house faces new charges

EVERETT — A convicted sex offender allegedly found hiding in an Everett woman’s bed earlier this month had failed to report to the state Department of Corrections for six months.

Jason Hoff, 34, was under supervision for a 2009 conviction for failing to register as a sex offender. His community corrections officer said she hadn’t seen Hoff since June, according to court papers filed earlier this week.

Snohomish County sheriff’s deputies arrested Hoff in September after he reportedly led police on a high-speed chase in the Arlington area. He was released, but a new warrant was issued a week later when he failed to report to his community corrections officer.

Hoff was arrested again in November. He was able to get a Spokane bail bonds company to post the $10,000 bond on Dec. 1. He was released from jail but again failed to report to his community corrections officer and a new warrant was issued on Dec. 5.

A day later, Everett police arrested Hoff after they found him hiding in a woman’s house.

Prosecutors on Wednesday charged Hoff with residential burglary while on community custody.

The homeowner told police she became suspicious when she arrived from work and noticed lights on in her house. Instead of going inside to investigate, she alerted a neighbor, an off-duty Everett police officer.

He and the woman waited outside for more officers to arrive.

Police quickly discovered that the house had been ransacked. Small stacks of items had been piled around the house. Officers searched the house and in the last upstairs bedroom they reportedly found Hoff lying on the bed. He appeared to be trying to hide under a pile of clothes. He was dressed in women’s clothes.

Hoff allegedly told the cops that a woman named “Angela” had invited him over to her aunt’s house for sex. He said “Angela” must have slipped a drug in the cereal he’d been eating because he passed out. He said when he woke up, he was in woman’s clothing and cops were handcuffing him.

The homeowner didn’t know Hoff and doesn’t have a niece named “Angela.”

Police believe Hoff broke out a bathroom window to get inside. Hoff’s clothes were found under the bed in the master bedroom. The victim told police the clothes Hoff was wearing had been in her dresser.

The defendant has 1993 third-degree rape conviction and a 1999 conviction for third-degree rape of a child. In 2009, he was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender. He was sentenced to a year in prison and three years of community supervision.

Hoff also is facing a felony eluding charge from the incident in September.